The Bottom Line on Covid-19 In Our Area This Fall

The current situation:

• COVID rates (wastewater contamination, infections, hospitalizations and deaths) nationally and locally are high – wastewater contamination levels in Charlottesville/Albemarle at the highest level
• Most people are not taking precautions to reduce the spread of COVID
• Vaccines had become very hard to come by in Virginia, but are now readily available at pharmacies for everyone over the age of 6 months
• Currently available at-home tests may be falsely negative 15-20% of the time in someone who does have COVID

Recommendations to consider:

• Handwashing with hand sanitizer frequently
• Masking with a high-quality mask if you are at increased risk for moderate to severe COVID (65 or older, Black or Hispanic, immunocompromised, have chronic lung or heart disease, diabetic, overweight, and others) or are around people who are at increased risk
• Vaccine (COVID; consider flu and RSV as well)

If having COVID symptoms (like a viral cold) or possibly exposed:

• Use an at-home antigen test
• If negative, test again in 2-3 days
• If not having symptoms, test a 3rd time in another 2-3 days
• If positive or testing has not been completed, take precautions to reduce spread of the virus

The Full Write-Up about Covid-19 In Our Area This Fall

As you may have heard or have guessed at, COVID rates nationally and locally have been increasing. Accurate and detailed data are more difficult to come by these days than previously, but rates of wastewater contamination, infections, hospitalizations and deaths have been going up since June of this year, although they may have peaked (for now) as of late August-early September. Wastewater contamination with COVID in the Charlottesville/Albemarle area is now at the highest category level (“Very High”), and is on the rise.

Compounding the current COVID situation are several factors that may make the situation even worse in the coming weeks to months. Understandably, a large portion of the population are no longer taking precautions (like masking, hand washing, vaccines, and isolation) to protect themselves or others from COVID or other respiratory infections like the flu.

In addition, as some of you may have experienced, COVID vaccines have been hard to come by in Virginia, due to both new requirements for a prescription for persons under the age of 65 who don’t have a high-risk condition, as well as lack of availability from providers. Fortunately, the Virginia Dept. of Health changed its guidelines on September 11 so that pharmacists can dispense the vaccine to anyone over the age of 6 months without a provider’s prescriptions. But some people who might have otherwise gotten vaccinated may have given up on getting a vaccine, or may have gotten COVID during the time that they were unable to get a vaccine.

Lastly, the most accurate at-home tests, the PCR tests, are not available at this time. The only at-home COVID tests available now are antigen tests, which may give a negative result 15-20% of the time in someone who does in fact have COVID (“false negative”); individuals who are infected but have a negative test may not take precautions to reduce spread.

So, it may be prudent to be a little more cautious now than we have been about COVID. Hand washing with sanitizer is easy and doesn’t significantly interfere with other activities. Masking with a high-quality mask may be important, especially for people who are especially at risk for moderate to severe COVID – this includes people 65 and older, Blacks, Hispanics, people who are immunocompromised, and those with certain medical conditions such as chronic lung or heart disease, diabetes, obesity and others – as well as those who will spend a significant amount of time around high-risk individuals. If you are at risk, you may want to talk to a medical provider about a vaccine; remember that flu and RSV season is also here, so consider flu vaccine (and RSV vaccine if eligible) at the same time.

If you are having symptoms suggestive of COVID, or may have been exposed to someone who has COVID, think about doing an at-home test. Common symptoms of the current strains are similar to those of other upper respiratory viruses – cough, runny nose, nasal congestion, shortness of breath, fevers, chills, body aches, headaches, and fatigue. Loss of sense of taste or smell is no longer a common COVID symptom. If the test is negative, you should test again in 2-3 days to reduce the chance of a false negative test. If you don’t have any symptoms, you should do a 3rd test in another 2-3 days to be sure. If any test is positive, or if you haven’t completed all of the recommended tests, you should take steps to reduce the chance that you will infect someone else. Although more expensive, there are also kits that test for COVID and the flu that may be worth using.